1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
English is one of the foreign languages taught in our country. The Indonesian government has taken several efforts for educational development such as increasing the English skill for each Indonesian learner. The
government expects through English teaching, Indonesian learners can acquire science and technology in order to build our country. The success of English
teaching can be seen by how far the learners can communicate in the target language. The other thing that should be known well by the teachers is the curriculum. This is because curriculum is considered to be the main source for teachers to determine how to teach, what material to take, the time allotment, and also deal with testing devices.
The learners need the information or the material to increase their knowledge. They can get it easily through some media that have been provided. One of them is the textbook. The presence of a textbook is necessary to support the teaching-learning process. According to Bacon (1935) in Tarigan (1993:11), “the textbook is designed to be used in the classroom, being arranged, and prepared carefully by the expert in the field and being completed with teaching material that are suitable and compatible”. A lot of schools use the textbook as the teaching learning media for improving the reading skill. The textbook contains the teaching material and its task.
There are four of language skills such as listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Reading is the most important skill of language skills which can improve the learner’s knowledge. According to Kennedy (1981:5), “reading is the ability of an individual that recognizes a visual form to associate the form with the sound and/or meaning acquired in the past, and, on the past
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To improve the reading skill, the teacher must serve the material with the several types of reading text usually taken from the textbook. The reading text is genre texts such as narrative, recount, procedure, news item, descriptive, etc. The genre texts are often provided in the reading task of the textbook. Task is the important activity for improving the student’s knowledge. According to Richards, Platt, and Webber (1985) in Tomlinson (1998:226), a task is an activity or action which is carried out as a result to process or understand the language (i.e. as a response to verbal or non-verbal
input). From the definition above, the writer concludes that the task can make the students understand a material given deeply.
“Developing English Competencies” is the textbook used by the tenth grade of SMA Negeri 1 Boyolali. There are many tasks that are useful for improving the reading skill of students. Here, the writer wants to analyze this textbook whether it can improve the student’s knowledge and it is suitable with the curriculum or not.
Based on the reason above, the writer is interested to make the research entitled An Analysis on Task of Reading Text in the Textbook
Entitled Developing English Competencies Used by the Tenth Grade of
SMA Negeri 1 Boyolali.
B. Limitation of the Research
The writer limits the problem of the research on task of the reading text of the textbook Developing English Competencies. She just takes all task of reading texts found in the textbook used by the first semester of tenth grade of SMA Negeri 1 Boyolali as the data.
C. Problem Statement
Based on the background of the study, the writer states the research problems as follows:
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2. Are the tasks of reading text compatible with the requirements of the 2013 curriculum?
D. Objective of the Study
Based on the problem statement, there are two objectives of the study as follows:
1. To clarify the types of the reading task found in the textbook “Developing English Competencies”.
2. To find out whether the tasks in reading text are compatible with the requirements of the 2013 curriculum.
E. Significance of the Study
The writer hopes this research can help others in practical teaching and making research. She divides the significance of the study in theoretical and practical as follows:
1. Theoretical Significance
This research can be useful in giving additional information in making the next research about reading skill.
2. Practical Significance
This research will be useful reference for teacher and the learner to choose the suitable book for improving their knowledge.
F. Research Paper Organization
This research paper is divided into five chapters. Chapter I is introduction which presents of background of the study, limitation of the study, problem statement, objective of the study, significance of the study, and
research paper organization.
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Chapter III is research method which consists of type of the research, subject of the research, object of the research, data and data source, method of collecting data, and technique for analyzing data.
Chapter IV is research finding and discussion. This research finding is elaborated into the types of the reading task that found in the textbook “Developing English Competencies” and the compatibility of the tasks of reading text with the requirements of the 2013 curriculum.